Industrial-rated circuit breakers are currently available having operating components that are designed for automatic assembly to provide cost improvement as well as improved operating efficiency. The precision alignment performed by the automated assembly equipment assembles the operating components within very close operating tolerances. An operating mechanism designed for down-loaded automated assembly is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,864,263, which Patent is incorporated herein for reference purposes. The operating mechanism assembly includes a pair of operating springs that are overcentered for rapidly driving the movable contact arm and the attached movable contact away from the stationary fixed contact to interrupt the circuit current. The operating mechanism includes a cradle operator which engages a latch assembly to prevent the movable contact arm from being driven to its open position under the urgence of the charged operating springs. The compact latch assembly includes a primary and secondary latch operating within a common support structure.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,671,890 entitled "Manually Operable Molded Case Circuit Breaker With Special Trip Testing Means" and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 486,681 filed Mar. 1, 1990 entitled "Rotatable Trip Test Assembly for Molded Case Circuit Breakers" both describe a trip-to-test button that allows the circuit breaker operating mechanism to be manually articulated for test purposes. In some applications, it is more advantageous to articulate the operating mechanism by linear displacement of the trip-to-test button shaft rather than by rotation.
An auxiliary switch device such as described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,831,221 entitled "Molded Case Circuit Breaker Auxiliary Switch Unit" is used with molded case circuit breakers to provide remote indication of the ON-OFF conditions of the circuit breaker contacts. It would be economically advantageous if a single-sized auxiliary switch could be employed over a wide range of circuit breakers having differing ampere ratings.
Accordingly one purpose of the instant invention is to provide a trip-to-test button that can be installed within an automated circuit breaker assembly process.
A further purpose of the invention is to provide a unit for interfacing between an auxiliary switch accessory unit and the circuit breaker operating mechanism to allow a single auxiliary switch design to be operable over a wide range of circuit breaker ratings.